The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Proceeding \Pro*ceed"ing\, n.
   1. The act of one who proceeds, or who prosecutes a design or
      transaction; progress or movement from one thing to
      another; a measure or step taken in a course of business;
      a transaction; as, an illegal proceeding; a cautious or a
      violent proceeding.
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            The proceedings of the high commission. --Macaulay.
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   2. pl. (Law) The course of procedure in the prosecution of an
      action at law. --Blackstone.
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   Proceedings of a society, the published record of its
      action, or of things done at its meetings.
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   Syn: Procedure; measure; step, See Transaction.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Proceed \Pro*ceed"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Proceeded; p. pr. &
   vb. n. Proceeding.] [F. proc['e]der. fr. L. procedere,
   processum, to go before, to proceed; pro forward + cedere to
   move. See Cede.]
   1. To move, pass, or go forward or onward; to advance; to
      continue or renew motion begun; as, to proceed on a
      journey.
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            If thou proceed in this thy insolence. --Shak.
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   2. To pass from one point, topic, or stage, to another; as,
      to proceed with a story or argument.
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   3. To issue or come forth as from a source or origin; to come
      from; as, light proceeds from the sun.
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            I proceeded forth and came from God.  --John viii.
                                                  42.
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            It proceeds from policy, not love.    --Shak.
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   4. To go on in an orderly or regulated manner; to begin and
      carry on a series of acts or measures; to act by method;
      to prosecute a design.
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            He that proceeds upon other principles in his
            inquiry.                              --Locke.
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   5. To be transacted; to take place; to occur. [Obs.]
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            He will, after his sour fashion, tell you
            What hath proceeded worthy note to-day. --Shak.
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   6. To have application or effect; to operate.
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            This rule only proceeds and takes place when a
            person can not of common law condemn another by his
            sentence.                             --Ayliffe.
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   7. (Law) To begin and carry on a legal process.
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   Syn: To advance; go on; continue; progress; issue; arise;
        emanate.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

proceeding
    n 1: (law) the institution of a sequence of steps by which legal
         judgments are invoked [syn: proceeding, legal
         proceeding, proceedings]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

149 Moby Thesaurus words for "proceeding":
   MO, accomplished fact, accomplishment, accounts, achievement, act,
   acta, action, actions, activity, acts, address, advancing,
   adventure, affair, affairs, affectation, air, algorithm, annals,
   approach, archives, attack, bearing, behavior, behavior pattern,
   behavioral norm, behavioral science, blow, business, carriage,
   celebrations, comportment, concern, concernment, conduct, coup,
   course, course of action, culture pattern, custom, dealings, deed,
   demeanor, deportment, doing, doings, effort, endeavor, enterprise,
   events, exploit, fait accompli, fashion, feat, folkway, form,
   forward, forward-looking, gest, gestures, go, go-ahead, goings-on,
   guise, hand, handiwork, interest, job, line, line of action, lines,
   maintien, maneuver, manner, manner of working, manners, matter,
   means, measure, method, methodology, methods, mien, minutes, mode,
   mode of operation, mode of procedure, modus operandi,
   modus vivendi, motion, motions, move, movements, moves, moving,
   observable behavior, oncoming, ongoing, onward, operation, order,
   overt act, passage, pattern, performance, poise, port, pose,
   posture, practice, praxis, presence, procedure, proceedings,
   process, production, progressing, progressive, records, reports,
   res gestae, routine, social science, step, stroke, stunt, style,
   system, tack, tactics, technique, the drill, the how, the way of,
   thing, thing done, tone, tour de force, transaction, transactions,
   turn, undertaking, way, way of life, ways, wise, work, works



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

PROCEEDING. In its general acceptation, this word means the form in which
actions are to be brought and defended, the manner of intervening in suits,
of conducting them, the mode of deciding them, of opposing judgments and of
executing.
     2. Proceedings are ordinary and summary. 1. By ordinary proceedings are
understood the regular and usual mode of carrying on, a suit by due course
at common law. 2. Summary proceedings are those when the matter in dispute
is decided without the intervention of a jury; these must be authorized by
the legislature, except perhaps in cages of contempts, for such proceedings
are unknown to the common law.
     3. In Louisiana, there is a third kind of proceeding, known by the name
of executory proceeding, which is resorted to in the following cases: 1.
When the creditor's right arises from an act importing a confession of
judgment, and which contains a privilege or mortgage in his favor. 2. When
the creditor demands the execution of a judgment which has been rendered by
a tribunal different from that within whose jurisdiction the execution is
sought. Code of Practice, art. 732.
     4. In New York the code of practice divides remedies into actions and
special proceedings. An action is a regular judicial proceeding, in which
one party prosecutes another party for the enforcement or protection of a
right, the redress or prevention of a wrong, or the punishment of a public
offence. Every other remedy is a special proceeding. Sec. 2.